We are many. We are strong.

He had been even higher above standing on the roof, but there was something special about looking down from the Council’s balcony, thought Arthem. It was where he was meant to be.

Besides him stood those who had assisted him in his victory. To his right, Anne, who had bravely confronted the Sun Goddess. To his left, Vik, who had intervened to support her. And everyone else who had listened to his tale in the cave, those who dreamed of change.

After they had refused to speak, overwhelmed by the situation and the sheer amount of people confronting them, the Council and the Matriarch had been imprisoned. Once everything was over, they would be dealt with. Now, time was of the essence, even more than before.

By summoning the Sun, they had given Her the chance to directly extract power from them, too. He was mostly sure She had done it, right before being released. It had certainly been a possibility in Arthem’s mind, but he had hoped that Helia’s situation, or the Moon God, would be an exception. Maybe She was not capable of such a thing, or maybe She was. He had deemed it a risk worth taking nonetheless, and he had lost his gamble, he suspected. Everyone had felt that uncanny sense of loss, but it had been shared among them all, and so, it had not been as devastating. Even so, it was possible She had gotten even more power from the Solarists than the Moon had from Helia.

Arthem had not shared this worry with anyone, and he would not, ever, now that it had come true. He took a deep breath in and faced the crowd who was expectantly awaiting his words.

“Look at the Sun, my siblings”, he told them, gazing up above himself. “Can you feel it? That uncanny sensation means it has already started. The Sun and the Moon, they are working together to force an Eclipse.”

He let them see for themselves, and waited some seconds as the realization and despair ran across their faces.

“Before that happens, we must act. Tomorrow morning, just like today, we will call for the Sun Goddess, and make Her answer for Her crimes”, continued Arthem. He did not dare say the words directly, for fear it would be too much for the Solarists. Even if they all knew what he meant. What had to be done.

They would most likely have to kill their Goddess.

“How is that even possible?”, asked someone below them.

“This is your power, Solarists. She is your Goddess, and She must answer to Her followers”, he told them, raising both hands, only this time it was not in defeat. “We call Her a Goddess, yes. But She is just one. Remember. We are many. We are strong. For generations, we have prepared for this. We will prevail. It is our destiny!”

He cried, and everyone followed suit.

He did not know about everyone else, but this was, without a doubt, his destiny.

Everyone was invited, and encouraged, to listen and participate. Almost the entirety of Xuriya heard Arthem describe the prophecy, his heroic stand against the Moon, and about the Moon Priest, Helia. He answered as many questions as he could, and as he thought would be useful for what was to come, before pivoting into what their next steps would be.

They were deep into their strategy meeting when the Eclipse started, only a few hours after dawn.

Even Arthem was surprised. He thought that they had more time, for sure. 

The discussion got more frantic. Who the best suited for which task was, which weapons to use, if they needed Handlers or not, everything blurred together with renewed urgency. Many words were said, but hopelessness weighed down on the city at this development. Before long, the Moon covered the Sun entirely, and a tepid night fell. And with it, the Shadows arrived.

As if they had been waiting impatiently, endless Shadows started appearing everywhere, all at once. No longer was there any doubt of what Arthem had announced, however, the meeting was forcefully interrupted. Armed with lumiranite, they all rallied around the few Handlers present and fought for their lives.

They had been training and fighting Shadows ever since they were born, but they were only human. They got tired, and they made mistakes. The Shadows seemed endless, sometimes even materializing in front of them. Dark mounds the size of people scattered around the vast plaza, faster than they could deal with the Shadows.

“There are too many!”, yelled Vik, narrowly escaping the touch of a gigantic bat.

“What should we do?”, asked Anne as she impaled a canine Shadow with her spear. “Arthem!”

His body was busy with a snake trying to surround him, but his head kept working, trying to find a solution. They would not fail. They could not.

“We do it now!”, he responded, beheading the Shadow he had been fighting with the blade of his polearm.

“Now?! We cannot possibly succeed in this state!”, complained Vik.

Someone cried out behind them and fell to the ground, their body enveloped in darkness. “If we don’t, we have already lost”, retorted Arthem, and then, he started loudly singing a prayer.

After a brief delay, those directly next to him joined in. With each voice, they got louder, reaching more Solarists, who then understood what was happening, and added themselves to the choir.

Nothing happened, and with every second, their numbers dwindled. “Do not be afraid!”, Arthem paused his efforts to encourage them. “We are many! We are strong! Believe, and bring Her here!”

He wasn’t sure anyone had heard him through the singing and the fray, but that was all he could do for now.

A few seconds later, his prayers were answered.

A bright light cut through the darkness enveloping the world. The figure of the Sun, shining bright, stood among the chaos of the plaza, surrounded by Solarists and Shadows alike. Compared to just a few hours prior, she looked disheveled. But, above all, she looked furious.

Arthem held onto the balcony rail, looking frantically for the fastest way down. “Now! ATTACK!”, he commanded.

With practiced movements, every Solarist within reach turned towards the Goddess. Weapons and Handling alike flew in Her direction, all of them desperate to be the one who would succeed.

Before any of them connected, they were vaporized.

With a terrifying cry that resonated inside of everyone’s head, the form of the Sun exploded into flames of pure white, eradicating everything in a radius of several dozen meters. All Solarists and Shadows on the plaza, all of them gone in the blink of an eye. And with them, so was the Goddess.

The shockwave made Arthem stumble backwards, losing his footing. As he fell on the ground, the blazing light reached the Shadows on the balcony, evaporating them as well.

Arthem’s eyes widened in terror.

“Impossible”, he managed to whisper. His head was spinning. Confusion, terror, despair, everything melded together.

“-them! Arthem!”, he heard Anne’s voice above him. “What should we do now? Arthem!”

He looked up, but no words left his lips. A Shadow appeared right behind Anne, and just like that, she was on the floor, confined to a cocoon of darkness.

Arthem yelped and scrambled to stand up. His mind kept turning in circles as his body fought the upcoming Shadow with pure instinct and muscle memory.

“What have you done, boy?”, he heard a female voice behind him. The Matriarch, accompanied by her Great Spirit, the lion Sirius. Through the chaos and confusion, someone must have freed the Council, not surprisingly. Several soldiers protected her from any Shadow with masterful strikes.

Her look of contempt reminded Arthem of his anger. “Something! Unlike you, I tried!”, he yelled back.

“All you have done is damn us all”, the Matriarch shook her head, giving him a pitiful stare.

Arthem’s scream couldn’t convey even a small fraction of his frustration. With the pretext of fighting Shadows, the guards had been steadily approaching to him, but he had noticed. His Soul burned as he summoned a rain of Fire on them.

Taken by surprise, they stepped back. One gasped loudly, realizing Arthem had no Spirit with him. Through their confusion, Arthem hurled one final flaming projectile to the Matriarch.

With a sigh, she waved it away with one hand, as if it was nothing but an annoying fly. "What a disgusting, perverse thing you are", she asserted with a grimace. "Perhaps, the prophecy was about you, all along", growling, her Spirit got into position to pounce on Arthem.

“It’s not over!”, he cried out, refusing to give into his despair. With a leap, he went above the balcony’s railing. The plaza below was several meters away, and covered in dark lumps eager to force him to join them.

He tried to make himself as compact as possible, and prepared for the impact. He rolled, slowing his speed, and ignoring the cries of pain of his entire body. Then, he swiftly stood up and took off running once more.

The shadowy remains of his fellow Solarists were scattered all around him, yet he had not touched any of them through his trajectory. Once again, his chest filled with determination and purpose. Why else would he still be alive, through all of this? There was surely something he was still supposed to do.

Above him, the Matriarch and her companions watched him flee. “Should we follow him, madam?”, asked one of them.

“No need”, she waved them off. “He is not important.”

Shadows everywhere overwhelmed the remaining Solarists, who were becoming fewer every time Arthem blinked. He ran, ignoring their pleas for help, defending his own life with a sword he had picked up from one of his fallen brethren.

He took the stairs he had avoided just the night before, and flew downwards, towards the room of the prophecy. Every second that he survived validated the growing feeling in his chest, telling him he was right. There was something he had missed, something that had to be done.

With no one left to remind him he wasn’t allowed inside, he pushed both doors open with all his strength and entered the room. Several Shadows tried to stop him, but they were no match for his determination.

“Oh, it’s you, again”, the familiar voice of the Great Spirit Myrena filled his mind as he was desperately trying to find something, anything, on the murals. He ignored her, even though he was boiling with anger.

“My Lady says thanks for the additional ember, by the way”, she laughed with scorn.

Unable to focus on the murals anymore, Arthem turned towards the phoenix and hurled Fire at her. This only made her laugh harder, dispelling it with ease before it came even close.

“I see, that is what you have been doing to your Soul”, she said. “What a fool you are, truly.”

Through her mockery, Arthem was forced to deal with several Shadows, attracted to him by his own Handling. He tried to calm down his shaking body, and focus on what he had to do, his mission. He had a world to save; the words of a mere Spirit couldn’t stop him.

The Sun and the Moon, apart. Several flying Shadows appeared from thin air, and he cut them down. 

The Moon Priest, bringing forth the Shadows. A giant feline pounced on him; its head was promptly separated from its body. 

Then, the Eclipse. More snakes tried to corner him. 

The Moon Priest, doing something. His body ached, begging for rest. 

Then, the Sun and the Moon were apart, once more. He was so tired, and nothing made sense.

It got harder and harder to ignore the voice at the back of his head with every Shadow that hurled itself at him.

Had he made a mistake?

What was he supposed to understand? What was he supposed to do?

Was there even something he could do?

Helia’s dying face flashed through his mind. Her teary eyes, pleading, full of sorrow and hurt, as he had betrayed her.

Had he doomed the world with his own hands?

Something snapped inside him.

With a deep breath, he let his sword go and sat down with his back against the mural depicting the Moon Priest singing to the Moon, surrounded by His Great Spirits.

He looked up to the silvery figure with regret. “I’m sorry”, he whispered to a dead girl who could no longer hear him.

As Arthem closed his eyes, the figure of a canine Shadow jumped at him, its immense jaw opened at an unnatural angle. He sighed, and accepted his fate. His retribution.

But instead of the familiar, unending despair that should have corrupted his being, he heard a strange clanking noise, accompanied shortly after by a powerful wind. His eyes opened, just in time to see as the Shadow was thrown onto a nearby wall with a loud thump. Now ignoring Arthem, the creature promptly got back on its feet to take its revenge.

A glistening ray of moonlight pierced through it before it could do anything else.

Arthem could hear his heartbeat thumping loudly in his chest. He looked over to the center of the room, where the hole in the cliff descended towards the ocean pond he had once used to escape this same cavern.

There stood a phoenix covered in light green feathers. On his back, a girl with short black hair had a glowing hand raised in his direction.

And she was furious.